Why Does an Epidemic Bring Out the Worst In Liberals?

Over the last month or two, as the coronavirus has burst into public consciousness, we have witnessed a long-running show called Liberals Behaving Badly. Liberals like Nancy Pelosi initially pooh-poohed the virus and criticized President Trump for taking meaningful action against it by blocking travel from China. But once it became apparent that the virus would be a significant problem, they did a 180 and began to accuse Trump of not doing enough. We have all seen this ad nauseam, and there is no need to catalog thousands of instances. For an effective push-back against a ritual recitation of fake Democratic Party talking points, check out this colloquy between Congressman Dan Crenshaw and lefty Bill Maher:

We have also seen an outpouring of hope from liberals that conservatives will die from the virus. I can’t readily think of a parallel in our history. During and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, I don’t recall a single conservative saying that, looking on the bright side, it’s mostly liberals who are dying. Conservatives just don’t think like that. This time around, however, many liberals are both blaming conservatives for the virus and rooting for conservatives to die. Which seems a bit odd, since the main centers of infection are all in blue zones like New York City, Detroit and New Orleans.

One Fabiola Santiago, an actual columnist for the Miami Herald, believe it or not, rooted for conservative deaths after warm weather caused people to return to Miami’s beaches:

It isn’t easy to pack so much stupidity into a single tweet. In the first place, why does Ms. Santiago assume that those on the beach were Republicans? My guess is that most were not. And what is this about “valu[ing] money over health?” Has going to the beach suddenly become lucrative? When all you know how to do is chirp DNC talking points, you can be dumber than would normally be possible.

President Trump tweeted an appropriate response:

So Ms. Santiago deleted her tweet and offered this insincere apology:

I deleted the tweet commenting on people at the beach because it didn’t accurately convey my sentiment and I want to apologize for the phrase I used that offended many people.

When a person says that what she said doesn’t reflect her true opinion, you can be pretty sure that it does.

It’s just another day in Liberal Land. The hate flows freely, and it would be a Sisyphean task to keep track of it, let alone try to rebut it. The lesson, though, is clear. In the past, conservatives were much too willing to give liberals a pass with regard to motivation. Conservatives have generally thought that liberals are well-meaning, just ill-informed. There certainly are liberals in that category. But there are a great many liberals for whom that characterization is too kind. Many liberals are simply hateful people, and their ideology reflects that hate.

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